


Blindness

by eledhwenlin



Category: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-06-21
Updated: 2004-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-12 06:06:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/121651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eledhwenlin/pseuds/eledhwenlin





	Blindness

Blindness has nothing to do with this. He knows it, just as well as Arthur does. Nevertheless the human has decided to be stubborn again and behave like a five-year-old. And still he wonders how such a small comment made by Trillian could have set him up like that. Sometimes Ford wonders why he puts up with the man at all. Let's be honest, the guy is nothing but a nuisance.

First, he doesn't know anything about how the universe really works. Nor does he intend to pick up some knowledge. Ever since that event with that stupid planet happened, his friend (although he's been using that phrase rather randomly concerning Arthur) has been even more strange than before. Okay, the earth has been its home. So mankind didn't know they weren't alone in the universe. Their bad.

He must admit that it'd been a quite beautiful planet. And that England had been a rather nice part of it, too. But to be still grieving... it is a little bit hard to take. After all, he was quite fine after his planet crashed, wasn't he?

Suddenly Ford thinks about nice it would be to be on Betelgeuse and spend his time doing nothing. Yes, that would be great. Instead he is in a small bar on a small planet in a system he'd like to leave rather soon, waiting for his dumb friend to calm down and leave the damn bathroom.

Sighing he gets up and goes to get Arthur. For once they don't have a universe to save and he'd rather enjoy his downtime as much as he can without having to worry about stupid monkeys being stupid and stubborn.

Inside the room, he tries not to notice the dirt and filth, but knocks carefully on the door of the only stall there is. "Go away."

"Arthur, we have to leave soon."

"Maybe I don't want to leave. I like this place a lot."

"You don't."

"How would you know?"

Ford suppresses a sigh and tells himself to breathe. Deeply. He needs to be calm or one of them won't be alive anymore by the end of this conversation. "Arthur, quit being such a stupid tidwit and come out."

The door opens faster than he expects and before he can regain his footing, he has his arms full with one angry human being. "I'm not stupid!"

Trying to appear nonchalantly, Ford replies very calmly. "But right now, you're doing a pretty good job at appearing that way."

Arthur opens his mouth as if to answer with something not very nice, but then he closes it again. His face hardens and abruptly he turns away from Ford and exits the room quite quickly. Ford is left to look after him very confusedly. He doesn't know what gained him that response and how he achieved that. He leaves the room with the feeling that this isn't done with at all.

***

He would have like himself to be wrong. Only this one time. Four sets of eyes stare at the door Arthur has just exited through quite loudly and angrily. Ford wants to hide himself somewhere where there aren't any humans and especially not this one.

Then one pair of eyes turns towards him and he knows he doesn't stand a chance. Whether he wants to or not, he will have to go after Arthur and clean this up. He doesn't want to have this conversation, but he has a feeling that Arthur doesn't want to either. Nevertheless he feels Trillian's glare on him intensify. He knows the girl is rather protective of Arthur. He figures it's one of those strange bonding things they had down on their planet. Regardless of whether they get along, in times of need the one backs up the other one. It's kind of cute, at least Ford has thought so all the time. Now that he is on the receiving end of The Glare instead of being the one that is helped, he thinks it's not quite so cute anymore. But he knows the situation won't get better all alone. So he has to get up. Really soon. He's still seated and he doesn't want to think of the reasons why.

"Won't you go to him and tell him he's totally wrong?"

Only with effort, Ford gets his vocal chords to work. "Yeah, I will."

"Now or when he has convinced himself you really don't like him and would see him rather dead than at your side?"

Ford is silent and apparently this is too much for Trillian. She virtually drags Ford out of his seat and pushes him towards the door. "The next time I'll see you I want to see a smiling and happy Arthur next to you."

Ford hasn't a chance, but to nod and the next instance he's on the other side of the door.

***

"Do you think that was necessary?"

Angry eyes turn towards Zaphod. He shrugs and while his one head is intently studying the output on the screens in front of him, the other one turns to look at Trillian.

"You know what will happen once they figure it out."

"I sure as hell can't say that 'figuring it out', as you put it, has affected you in any bad ways."

Zaphod decides to be wise and drop the subject. His other head pretends to be interested in the output, too, and Trillian gives him one last shot before turning to her own terminal. She can only hope that Ford will be the clever guy he is and do what she wants him to. Men can be so tiring, she thinks.

***

Ford is convinced that he stands in front of closed doors way too often. It's a habit he should break. But unfortunately he actually wants to go inside this time. He wants to get Arthur to behave his normal strange self again. He wants Arthur to stop being so... well, stop being whatever it is called that he behaves like.

The longer he stands there, the harder it will become to get Arthur to talk to him. But then, he muses, that has always been the problem, hasn't it? To get Arthur to open his eyes and see the universe as it is.

Sighing (and this is also a habit he should break, it becomes too annoying to even himself) he pushes open the door. Never before in his life has he been so grateful to Zaphod because he has turned off the speech circuits of the doors. He couldn't have stood a cheerful "You have made a simple door very happy!" right now. Someone should bomb out the main buildings of the Sirius Cybernetics Company. The universe would have some twenty planets less (the sueing department alone covers three planets), but it would be a much better place to live in.

Inside the room he stops cold. Arthur is lying on his stomach on his bed, staring at the wall, poignantly ignoring Ford.

"Hey, Arthur."

No reaction. This is absolutely ridiculous. Arthur is absolutely ridiculous. Ford clenches his hands, then he tells himself to relax and just get it over with. Cautiously he approaches Arthur. He isn't afraid of what Arthur might do to him. He's more concerned about Arthur falling from the bed, trying to get away from him. Sometimes it would be easier to live with a wild tiger. At least he wouldn't have to worry about the tiger hurting itself accidentally.

"Arthur, this is us not getting anywhere. Please, just tell me what's up."

Yes, this is exactly what he wants to know. For six days now Arthur has behaved in very strange ways. He is even more easy to annoy, a fact Ford hadn't thought possible, and has been treating Ford in ways he can't even put into words. Like Arthur didn't even want to be near Ford anymore when all he had done in the past had been to the effect to accomplish just that.

Very, very carefully he sits down next to Arthur, staring intently at his back. He doesn't have any idea what to say. How should he even, when he has absolutely no idea what he has done wrong in the first place?

"Arthur, are you still alive?"

It is so unlike the man to be so still. A grunt answers him sufficiently. Ford decides to do this up front. Being subtle hasn't ever helped with Arthur in the past, so there's really no point in using subtlety now.

"What have I done?"

"Nothing."

"I don't think so."

A sigh answers him this time and Ford contemplates whether nonverbal noises do actually carry a meaning. With Arthur they might. Arthur turns onto his side, facing the wall. "I want to be alone."

Ford throws him a pointed look that would tell Arthur that he doesn't intend to leave him alone. That is, if Arthur looked at him. Again, the word ridiculous crosses Ford's mind. But he has already overused his quota for today.

"Arthur ..."

"I don't want to talk about it."

So, at least there is an 'it' now. Ford wonders how long he has to probe until he is told the truth. He decides it's worth a try. "Why?"

Arthur's back stiffens and Ford knows that he has hit a raw nerve. Now he only needs about a minute ...

"It...it concerns you."

Slightly surprised he stops and contemplates this piece of information. He hasn't expected this, but it gives him new ammunition and he fully intends to use it.

"Don't you think you should tell me then?"

"I'd rather not. It's ... a very delicate matter."

"I don't understand."

"You see, that's exactly why I don't want to tell you."

Okay, maybe he has already used his share of the word ridiculous today. But now he will stop the charade because this is getting ever more ridiculous by the minute. Forcefully he grabs Arthur and turns him onto his back. He only notices wide, startled eyes, before he realizes that he has used too much force and the momentum of the move surprises him and then he's lying on the floor and Arthur knocks the air out of his lungs. The next thing he realizes surprises him even more, but Arthur's already scrambling off of him and making for the door.

"Arthur... is that what this is all about?"

He can see him stop cold at the door and almost laughs when he sees him nodding timidly. All those agonizing, the arguments, all this about something they both have been too cowardly to admit.

"You ... you're not angry?" Arthur sounds so incredulously that Ford wants to laugh again. But he doesn't. That's the worst thing he could do right now. So he gets up and goes over to Arthur. He still hasn't turned around, his hand hovering near the door knob, head half-turned. When Ford pulls him close and hugs him from behind, he feels him stiffen at first, then Arthur relaxes finally and lets himself pulled backwards to his bed.

"I'm not angry. I'm happy."

Arthur turns towards him and, for the first time for longer than Ford actually cares to know exactly, he doesn't hide his feelings. He can see the 'oh' forming in Arthur's mind and now he allows himself to laugh. No more words are needed to figure out the rest.

Back in the ship's bridge, two people hastily close down the com-connection they have built up without those two knowing. A smile creeps on Trillian's face. Finally the cover has been lifted and she hopes that neither of them will choose to veil their eyes again. Love has overcome blindness. And sometimes it's just that easy.


End file.
